The present invention relates to an apparatus and a process for the automatic cutting of meat or fish to produce portions of a predetermined constant weight.
In the production of packaged frozen meat or fish products, it is important that the weight of the portions is controlled as accurately as possible, otherwise the weights will vary at the time of filling the packages resulting in certain disadvantages. Underweight portions of incorrect weight have to be rejected leading to significant losses of fish or meat material while overweight portions have to be adjusted to the correct weight, which increases the costs.
The most reliable way of ensuring a constant weight is by cutting and weighing the portions manually. However, this is labour intensive and very time-consuming. Mechanical means for automatic and semi-automatic cutting and weighing of portions have been described but these generally involve the use of very complex, expensive machinery. For example, the use of photoelectric sensors has been proposed to detect the linear measurements of fish, but since not only the length, but also the breadth and thickness vary appreciably, this method would not lead to the cutting of portions with an accurate constant weight.
European Patent Application No. 86102704.3 describes and claims an apparatus and process for the automatic cutting of meat or fish material to produce portions of a predetermined constant weight, comprising a pair of adjacent parallel conveyors suitable for transporting a meat or fish material lying partly on each conveyor, a weighing machine and a movable cutting device characterised in that the parallel conveyors are adapted to travel in the same direction at substantially the same speed and that at least part of one of the parallel conveyors is adapted to form the load-bearing platform of the weighing machine, the weighing machine being adapted to weigh the material on the load-bearing platform and the cutting device being adapted to move transversely relative to the direction of movement of the conveyors, the direction and distance of the transverse movement being controlled by the weight recorded on the weighing machine, and then to cut the material parallel to the direction of movement.
This method is very reliable provided that the thickness of the meat or fish material does not vary too much. However, when there are wide variations in the thickness of the meat or fish pieces, it is rather difficult to maintain a constant weight.
An improvement to this apparatus and method in which the fish or meat is cut transversely to the direction of movement and, surprisingly, enables fish and meat pieces having widely varying thicknesses to be cut automatically to a predetermined constant weight.